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In addition to our earlier post mentioning Sen. Masterson’s focus on cutting spending rather than looking at tax policy, we note “Gov. Sam Brownback and legislative leaders approved less than half of the $1.1 million in additional funding requested by eight school districts [at a meeting last week for requests from the block grant extraordinary needs fund]. Sen. Ty Masterson, R-Andover – who in championing the block grants had said that ‘no district under this plan should have to cut a planned expenditure’ – urged State Finance Council members Tuesday to be cautious about approving funding requests. ‘If...

Will you hold legislators accountable for inadequate spending on schools? “Americans for Prosperity has launched a mail campaign encouraging Kansans to thank lawmakers who have previously pledged to keep taxes low and to hold them to that promise as the Legislature looks to fill a projected budget hole… “AFP has been aggressively lobbying lawmakers against raising taxes and, in particular, against making changes to the 2012 income tax cuts, which many economists blame for the budget shortfall. The anti-tax group, which has ties to Koch Industries, has instead called for lawmakers to cut spending.” Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/prairie-politics/article20352465.html...

Several school districts went through the first round of requests for emergency funding under the block grant program. “Winners of this first-ever sweepstakes were the Louisburg, Concordia, Skyline, Waconda and Lebo-Waverly districts. Financial appeals by North Lyon County, Southern Lyon County and Arkansas City were rejected…The council then adopted, on a party-line vote and with Brownback’s support, injection of $478,000 into the five districts.” Read more here: http://cjonline.com/news/2015-05-05/state-council-hands-478000-emergency-funding-five-public-school-districts...